Behind the doors of an M-art patron: the collection of Geneviève Smets and Victor Spaas

BEHIND THE DOORS OF AN M-ART PATRON

The collection of Geneviève Smets and Victor Spaas

IJzerenberg is a household name in the Leuven art world and far beyond. Every three years, Geneviève Smets and Victor Spaas' large garden would be transformed into a sculpture park where you could see and buy sculptures by artists from home and abroad. But the 2022 edition was the last, says Victor (85). "My wife passed away in November. She was the soul behind it. Without her, it is unthinkable."

Geneviève and Victor met in the early 1960s. Love for art was part of their relationship from the very beginning. "Geneviève was a biochemist. She started out as a teacher, and then she always worked in labs. She immediately spent her very first paycheque on a painting. That work still hangs here. For me, it has great emotional value. It is by Jacques Beckers, a classmate from my class in rhetoric."

"In 1985, we bought our house here on the IJzerenberg in Herent. In 1988 we organised our first exhibition in the garden which also featured work by Jacques Beckers. We saw that as something one-off, there was no big idea behind it. But years later, we were visiting my brother in Hamont. We went there to see an exhibition organised by the Rotary Club in the notary's garden. Then our penny dropped ‘we could actually do the same at our house’. I was in the Lions charity club and the proceeds allowed us to support one of our projects. We held the first edition in 2003. We then spent at least a year and a half finding artists, because we wanted works of a certain quality. Which we managed to do. We had Rik Poot, Paul van Gysegem, Frans Walravens... That was also Patrick Van Craenenbroeck's very first exhibition. He sold everything, and wept when he had to start delivering. That's how hard he found it to say goodbye to his work."

Objectfoto van een sculptuur op de Ijzerenberg — © Eva Beeusaert voor M Leuven

Schilderij van Jacques Beckers © Eva Beeusaert voor M Leuven

Ijzerenberg — © Eva Beeusaert voor M Leuven

Step by step

"Because so many people had come to see that first edition, we said: we will do it again in 2006. But it rained continuously and so it was all one muddy puddle. That's why we did it again in 2009. So a certainly regularity crept in step-by-step and we continued to organise it every three years. But now it is truly finished, because my wife is no longer here. She had a lot of contact with artists, she walked around with them when they came to set up their works and so on."

"I myself am a civil engineer. I have been building machines my whole career. First for my family's candle factory. Before I started working there, everything was still done by hand. I then joined the Remy factories in Wijgmaal. A massively large company and I rode my bike around the buildings. But when Remy was split up and sold, I started my own business."

"We were friends of the museum before M existed. Supporting the arts felt very natural for us. For example, we were also very involved in the Elisabeth Competition. Every edition we had candidates that stayed with us, once even the winner. When M started the M-art patron programme, we joined immediately, it was the obvious thing to do. M has also supported us in setting up some of our exhibitions."

An iron eye

"You can't really say we collected art. We just bought what we liked. Never have we said to each other: 'We're going to focus on this or that', or 'wouldn't that be a good investment?' We never bought anything we didn't both want. Before we started our own exhibitions, we mainly bought from galleries in Paris and the Embryo Gallery in Leuven."

"There no real red line. At first, we focused a bit more on figurative work, which later became more abstract. You grow into it."

"I think there are at least 200 works hanging here in the house. I can't take too many with me when I move, so lately I've been thinking about what to take and what not to take. There is one work I am very sure about, a painting collage by Spanish artist José Antonio Diazdel. All kinds of things happen in it: he uses pieces of fabric and paper, the eye is made of ironwork... I like that."

Schilderij van Diazdel — Schilderij van José Antonio Diazdel © Eva Beeusaert voor M Leuven

Black and white

"The most beautiful painting we have is by an artist you won't know. His name is Paul Hardt – written with a d with hyphen at the top, so you can read it as a d and a t. His father was Alfons Smets, the former mayor of Leuven. Paul went to live in France and painted there alone in his studio, a bit like Van Gogh. He died young, and his mother – my wife's aunt – then took care of his paintings. That's how that painting came to us. She said: I know only one place where it can come into its own, and that is with you. It is the largest painting we have, two by two metres. We have become very attached to it over time. You can keep looking at it, I feel."

"We also have an intriguing work by Claude Panier. When lovers of contemporary art come here, they usually find it our finest piece. Panier made it on the occasion of the Utopia year in Leuven, for the exhibition we organised at the court house then. We bought it, and we over time we like it better and better. Because it is so mysterious, and because it has so many layers. Also literally - it is made of wax."

"What will I definitely take with me? Our painting by Kako, a Spaniard, which is one of my favourites. Also Willy Peeters' chess game: the white pieces are all women, the black all men. Each piece is a work of art in itself, truly worth the effort. But I don't like playing chess with it. It is too difficult to tell the pieces apart."

Thuis bij M-cenas Victor Spaas — © Eva Beeusaert voor M Leuven

Critical audience

"We always chose where the works would go together. There was not much discussion about this, pieces find their own place. We also rearranged things once in a while."

"Since my wife died, I have made the dining room my living room. I also brought the piano here. I am playing a lot again, now that I am alone. There is a figurine of Ida de Roy on the piano, which then sits staring straight at my fingers. It always looks very dubious, I think (laughs). That will definitely go with me when I move."

Is becoming an M-art patron something for you?

Our M-art patrons enable valuable artistic and socio-cultural projects. Would you like to contribute to that while enjoying the exclusive and in-depth M-art patrons offer? If so, contact Memberships Coordinator Kara Kankilic.

Sounds good!